Isn't it crazy how No Age are huge now? We are into it. If you missed Saturday's sold out show with Liars YOU ARE IN LUCK because you can read our intern's review after the jump and after that, get a second chance to see No Age tonight at The Market Hotel along with our pals High Places, Rings, and a weird Telepathe dance thing that we don't really understand. Awesome city!
BRIEF PS: If you are going to the No Age show tonight and can pick us up a copy of Weirdo Rippers on vinyl and that No Age/Liars 7-inch that would be awesome! We will pay you back! We were just old and chilling up in the balcony and didn't wander down to the merch table. Holler at us info@thefader.com
Review by Jamie Johns
Los Angeles’ No Age, played a boner inducing opening set of new and old (read: one year old) jams like “My Life’s Alright Without You” and “Neck Escaper.” They held it down and drummer Dean Spunt spent parts of the set drinking out of a rubber boot. Awesome. I just wish more people had freaked out besides the drunk dude a few rows up who threw up the devil horns every time No Age played a song.
It’s been a really long time since I last saw Liars. It was 2002 then, and those dudes were really into Gang of Four and ESG. Angus Andrew had, dare I say it, a fashion mullet and the group were poised to become the leaders of some dance-punk movement. Liars ditched all of that shit and forged their own path of witchcraft, Berlin and weirdness in general, making them pariahs one minute and everyone’s favorite crazies the next. Highlights of their set on Saturday were most definitely to be found in jams like “We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own” (from 2004’s They Were Wrong So We Drowned) and “Clear Island” (from last year’s Liars) where the band straddled the menacing and spooky themes that they have perfected on their last few records while still remaining a bit cuddly. Maybe it was Angus Andrew’s dashing fuschia suit (complete with large stains) or maybe it was the small bedside table and leather chair that were placed onstage for the injured singer, making it seem that Andrew was about to deliver his own brand of fireside chat.
Andrew’s recent back injury forced him to sit down for portions of the show which allowed co-members Julian Gross and Aaron Hemphill to take a bit of the spotlight for themselves and show off how sick their skills are. Technically this band can shred and pound with the best of them. Despite his injury, Angus managed to get up, shake his ass a bit, lead an invisible drum corps and serenade the crowd with a Polish flag, which did not seem to please the gruff and buff guards at Warsaw. The drunk and thirty-something women behind me kept shouting things about nudity, boning, horses in dreams, and orgies which only shows that the man has got PRESENCE. At the end of the show I was left wondering two things: 1. Where are Liars going to go next? and 2. Where did a 6’6” man find a fuschia suit that fits him?
